A Collaborative Clinical Learning Initiative to Improve Perioperative Head and Neck Cancer Care

Introduction The care of head and neck cancer patients is complex and requires the expertise of professionals from across the allied health spectrum. Perioperative nurses play a crucial role in ensuring that head and neck cancer patients receive high-quality care, but are not afforded the opportunity to witness preoperative and postoperative management decisions. We hypothesized that shadowing a senior head and neck surgeon in an outpatient setting would result in improved understanding of clinical decision making and pathophysiology with the ultimate goal of improving patient care. Methods Nurses who specialize in perioperative care at the author's home institution spent one day in the outpatient clinic with the senior author. Educational goals included improving understanding of clinical decision making and pathophysiology and answering any questions participants posed. A structured questionnaire that included Likert-type scale questions was given to all participants to assess whether the initiative achieved its goals. Results Twenty-seven perioperative nurses participated in the exercise. Twenty-five of the 27 participants (92%) agreed that the experience would allow them "to provide better care to head and neck patients,", and 24 (89%) agreed that the experience helped improve "[their] understanding of the complex nature of4he care needed for head and neck patients." All participants would recommend the experience to a colleague. Conclusion Multidisciplinary care forms the foundation of head and neck cancer care, and therefore collaboration is an essential component for achieving high-quality care. Perioperative health professionals form a crucial part of the broader multidisciplinary team. We found that an interprofessional educational exercise between a senior surgeon and perioperative nurses resulted in an improved degree of comfort in the care and understanding of head and neck cancer. Future efforts should attempt to better understand the effect of similar collaborations on team dynamics and patient outcomes.